Speaking to Coventry Live, Coventry City manager Mark Robins has confirmed that young midfielder Dan Bartlett and loaned out forward Reise Allassani have both ruptured their anterior cruciate ligament injuries in the space of just a matter of days.
Young midfielder Dan Bartlett – who joined Coventry City earlier this summer on a free transfer from Premier League side Southampton – has been continuing his development with the Sky Blues’ Under-23s side, making his first-team debut recently.
Now, however, it has been confirmed that he has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in a challenge while playing for the Under-23s.
23-year-old forward Reise Allassani was sent out on loan earlier this summer to non-league outfit Dulwich Hamlet and he too has now suffered the same injury. Allassani – who has previously ruptured his ACL while with Crystal Palace as a youngster – suffered his injury in training.
Now, speaking upon the confirmation of the pair’s injuries, Coventry City boss Mark Robins has said:
“It’s horrendous, absolutely horrendous. We speak about why because that’s been two a season for the last few seasons, and you look at it and there’s no-one anywhere near the majority of them.
“Dan’s was different because he was under challenge and it’s a terrible injury with a clean tear of the ACL and a straight-forward fix, you would think, but it’s just the time it takes for it to graft, and the longer you can give it the stronger the graft.
“They are both going to need some assistance surgically and mentally to help them through their rehabilitation on the physical side, so things are in place for them to achieve a full recovery.
“He [Allassani] did it in training. Reise has got significant damage to his knee and he’s going to have a long period of recovery. I haven’t spoken to him yet but I will do.
“He’s still away down in London but we’ll get him back up and assess him and get his surgery sorted. It’s his second. When he was coming out of his contract at Crystal Palace he did his other knee.”
